Is game knowledge really important for a caster? - Page 16

On October 16 2011 01:39 Valashu wrote:
Game knowledge is immensely important to me, if a caster makes stupid mistakes or starts repeating the obvious you've lost me as a viewer. (for example I can't watch TB cast, I just start getting annoyed)

On October 16 2011 01:49 hipsterHobbit wrote:
Other people's perception is your reality.

On October 16 2011 03:26 TotalBiscuit wrote:


There's a fallacy if I've ever heard one.

On October 16 2011 03:57 Cel.erity wrote:


Are your ears burning, TB?

I'm glad you're reading this thread, because I wanted to say, it doesn't bother me if a caster does not have the absolute best analysis (although I much prefer analystical casters). What really makes me mute a stream is if a caster thinks they know way more than they do. HD, CatsPajamas, Moletrap are examples of casters who constantly make bad predictions and try to analyze above their ability, whereas someone like TotalBiscuit at least understands his level and doesn't try to sound like he's a pro SC2 player. It's way better to state the obvious than to state things that are downright wrong.

On October 16 2011 04:51 Monkeyballs25 wrote:
One reason the "entertainment" caster needs some starting game knowledge is that they need to ask the "analysis" caster questions about what's going on, for the benefit of the audience. If the knowledge isn't there, they'll ask a really stupid question that tells the audience nothing and which will then throw the other caster off. Same thing if they made a big deal over some fairly meaningless engagement or harassment kills. And finally its nice to have a *bit* of back and forth analytical debate during the quiet periods of a match, which doesn't work if only half the casting duo can keep up.

Edit : Just to give some examples from this cast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkiVJHmknhU
1:40 TB doesn't seem to know about the mineral trick, so the other caster has to correct him. Though he doesn't really explain it himself either.
2:40 On the plus side he makes a gas steal sound much more exciting than it really is
4:30 TB's comment "he really needs to split up his lings" when its chasing the surviving hellion. But...he doesn't split them, nothing bad seems to come of it, and I'm not sure if it was an accurate thing to say.
7:05 TB says "<the zerg> will be able to go in and kill a number of SCVs" when all he's got is like half a dozen nearly dead lings and the Terran has an MMM force and some hellions parked right beside the mineral line. Its hard to tell but I doubt he managed to kill a single worker.

The problem is that once I spot a few mistakes like these from a caster, I start doubting all the other things they say. When I'm kinda relying on them to explain stuff for me. Atleast in this case TB has a co-caster to bail him out when he says something incorrect.

On October 16 2011 20:14 Silentenigma wrote:
I think if your job is casting a game you have to know the game at least at master level.It is disappointing to see some casters are totally clueless about game and say wrong stuff all the time.